The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Osteospermum plant, botanically known as Osteospermum ecklonis, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Akvarzaxe2x80x99.
The new Osteospermum is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Aabyhxc3x8j, Denmark. The objective of the breeding program is to create new Osteospermum cultivars with uniform plant habit and interesting leaf and floret colors.
The new Osteospermum is a naturally-occurring branch mutation of the Osteospermum ecklonis cultivar Cape Daisy Lusaka, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 10,337. The new Osteospermum was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single plant within a population of plants of the cultivar Cape Daisy Lusaka during the winter of 1998 in a controlled environment in Aabyhxc3x8j, Denmark. The selection of this plant was based on its unique variegated foliage.
Asexual reproduction of the new Osteospermum by vegetative tip cuttings was first conducted in Aabyhxc3x8j, Denmark during the spring of 1998. Asexual reproduction by cuttings has shown that the unique features of this new Osteospermum are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
The cultivar Akvarza has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with variations in environment such as temperature, daylength and light intensity without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Akvarzaxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Akvarzaxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Osteospermum:
1. Uniformly mounded and outwardly spreading plant habit.
2. Freely branching growth habit; full and dense plants.
3. Freely flowering habit.
4. Green and pale yellow variegated foliage.
5. White-colored ray florets and light gray-colored disc florets.
The new Osteospermum are most similar to plants of the parent, the cultivar Cape Daisy Lusaka. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Encinitas, Calif., plants of the new Osteospermum differed from plants of the cultivar Cape Daisy Lusaka in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Osteospermum were more compact than plants of the cultivar Cape Daisy Lusaka.
2. Leaves of plants of the new Osteospermum were green and pale yellow variegated whereas leaves of plants of the cultivar Cape Daisy Lusaka were solid green in color.
Plants of the new Osteospermum differ primarily from plants of the cultivar Akvarlu, U.S. Plant Patent application filed concurrently with this application, in ray floret coloration.